Friday, 30 June 2017

Here are July's batch. Many of these artists I know nothing about. They are mostly somewhere on Facebook so it should be possible to find them if you are interested in further study of a particular artist. I'm continually amazed at the wealth of watercolour talent out there. There is no doubt in my mind that watercolour is given much more prominence in several of these artists countries than it is in the UK.

Meeta Dani

Amazing painting, Quite staggering detail.

Nathan Fowkes

Celal Gunaydin

Lam Leon
Beautiful.

Bev Jozwiak.

One of my favourite artists. I love her jackdaws. She does a whole series featuring them.

Nora McPhail

Nice loose work and colourful typical of this artists work.

Jonathan Kwegyir Aggrey

This young African artist is making quite a name for himself. This large scale panorama is fairly typical.

Thomas Schaller

Well - known artist with many followers and admirers.

Amal Pawar

Gerard Hendriks

Enough said one of my favourites as readers will know!

Charles Reid

Another favourite of mine.

Milind Mulick.

The prolific Milind - a very fine artist with a wide range of colourful subjects.

Stephie Butler

Stephies work is always colourful and worth studying.

Ewa Ludwiczak

The Charles Reid influence is clear to see in much of Ewas work but she does seem to be developing her own take on it.

Abe Toshiyuki

Lost the name of this artist but decided to leave it in. ADDED 09/07/17 According to Marko the artists above is Heinz Hofer

Same comments as above. I'll try harder in future! According to Marko this is by Ingrid Burchal.

Wednesday, 14 June 2017

Avon Valley Artists is an offshoot of the former Saltford Art Group, now defunct. About ten years ago, I'm unsure of the actual date, it was decided by a group of us to continue painting together meeting on a Thursday. Initially we painted at Saltford Hall but then moved to the Church Hall in the old village. Saltford holds a Festival every two years and as part of it we put on an exhibition and sale of paintings. This is what happened this year.

With Jeanne our oldest member who is 90.

Originally we had 25 members, this being limited by the size of the room we painted in. We meet during the day in the morning so don't attract younger members, those at work during the day or looking after families. Some groups meet in the evening and so attract those who cannot paint during the day. Advancing age, we are all retired some for a considerable period, has taken several from us and others have dropped out for the same reason. We retain the fondest memories of them. Currently we have 17 members who put on the exhibition illustrated above. We are in gentle decline but have a good group of artists of a high standard for amateurs.

This group is different to most amateur ones in that we paint to a programme of subjects (mostly but not only in watercolour) put together by Jan and Yvonne, who together with Robert, manage the group. I've belonged to other groups but none do this, basically doing their own thing, and consequently tend to be less close. Everything and everybody has a shelf life and exactly how much longer we'll continue is an open question. Hopefully for a while yet. The exhibition was very successful with good sales.

About Me

I'm a retired sales manager who worked for the Italian company Pirelli, in the tyre division, for twenty four years. After National Service in the Royal Air Force I joined Morris Motors then part of the British Motor Corporation ( now defunct), and then Carnation Foods who have since been swallowed up by their greatest rival Nestle. Then came Pirelli. Retired at 57. I started painting in watercolour four years after retirement, rather late in the day, and have been plugging away ever since. Previously my main interest was in a specialist gardening area, Auriculas and Primroses - members of the extensive Primula family - and I've written three books and numerous articles, as well as lecturing in the UK, USA and Canada, but painting now takes centre stage. Among my favourite artists are Charles Reid, Judi Whitton, John Yardley, Trevor Chamberlain, Skip Lawrence, David Taylor, Robert Wade, John Palmer, Aubrey Phillips, Piet Lap, Viktoria and Slawa Prischedko, Lin Fealing, Cao Bei An, Bev Jozwiak, Gerard Hendriks, Stan Miller, and from the older era Edward Seago, Edward Wesson, Hercules Brabazon, John Blockley, John Singer Sargeant. There are many others I like.